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Comment by hedora | Hacker News Reader

This abuse of power is the direct result of the militarization of our police force.

I say we take away their guns.

If a suspect is brandishing a firearm, they can call in a separate unit allowed to carry weapons.

Also, no more riot gear. The police can’t be trusted with it. Let the national guard have it, but train them for emergency response, not hunting down crooks.

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If you can't trust the police with guns or riot gear then what is the point of them. If all they are reduced to are official naggers then they will end up having to call the actual police (the people who are allowed to have guns and riot gear) and the actual police will end up doing what the current police do. A better solution would be to provide better training and enforcement of police behavior.

You can't trust most people with a gun. That's the problem. Guns also bring tension to most situations. How often do you visit people with a pistol attached to your hip? Do they all go, "Oh, yeah, feel even safer now that you're here." Probably not - they're worried you're going to do something stupid and shoot them.

No one I know feels safer with armed police around and tensions frequently escalate with them around. We all go, "this man has a gun and could kill us - he will do it too because he knows he will get away clean and free."

Training isn't sufficient. If there are real consequences for police and it shows that they face the same consequences the rest of us do for many years - maybe then. But that day will not be for 10+ years. For now, it's much easier to say and act on taking away their weapons that are meant to kill people.

In fact I do feel safer when the security guard in front of my kid's school is armed. That security guard has been trained and will suffer big consequences if he uses the gun improperly.

I guess that if you feel unsafe around armed security guards I can't argue with your feelings

What if he's a bad shot, tries to aim at and hit the perp doing a shooting and ends up killing more people than the actual shooter?

Then he is investigated and the court decides if he is liable for manslaughter, murder or nothing. Similar to a soldier who killed people from their country, nuclear engineers who caused a meltdown, or bus drivers who got into a deadly accident.

You have just described the British and Japanese police. They police just fine from the crime rates.

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